Birth of a phobia

So, the one thing I neglected to mention in my last post was my fun new fear of tight spaces. As I've grown older I've been vaguely aware that I'm slowly becoming more and more claustrophobic. I can handle elevators and most situations but every once in a while I feel freaked out by a space.

While in Big Bear I had a nightmare. I dreamt that I was somehow floating towards the ceiling corner of a wooden room. I opened my eyes to find I was only a few inches from the top corner of the room. I tried to push myself away from the corner but couldn't. I woke up in a panic. I thought I was PMS'd or something and told myself to calm down. Everything was fine but I was still freaking out. As I slowly woke up I realized I had ear plugs in and socks on. Good Lord! I pulled out the plugs and kicked off the socks but still felt entirely panicked. I then remembered that I was sleeping in a child's bunk bed. The bunk bed was made of wood, the same wood in my nightmare. Aaaaaaaaaah! I sat up on the edge of the bed and took quiet, deep breaths. I didn't want to wake my friend sleeping in the bed opposite me. I tried to distract myself by playing a few minutes of Scrabble on my iPod but ultimately couldn't handle that damn bed. I used the iPod as a flashlight and went downstairs with my copy of Twilight. I laid on the couch and read for about an hour and a half then fell to sleep. When I woke I felt much better but could not stand the thought of laying in that bunk bed ever again. Turns out the couch had a pull out bed in it so that's where I slept the last night of our trip.

My friend was working on a scrap book of her summer vacation with her family. She showed me a concrete space that the kids had to fit through in order to take a tour of some cave in Wyoming. She said none of the adults came close to fitting through the test space. Come to think of it, that may have why I dreamed of a close space that night. Anyway, the adults took an elevator down to the caves and met the kids at the bottom. The pictures of the cave freaked me out. They are cool and all but I can't understand the desire to go down there in such a small space. Whaaaaaaaaagh!

So there you have it. I'm mildly claustrophobic and it sucks. My friend said she has always been that way. She can't stand to have a hand on or near her face. Turns out her older brothers used to cover her face while wrestling with her back when they were kids. She's been freaked out about it ever since. Also, she is 6'2" (a former volleyball player) and figures she's just not used to having to share the space up there with very many people. I'm 5'10" so she figures the same could easily apply to me. It's an interesting thought. No matter, I'll never sleep in a bunk bed again. *shudder*